CBS?
Oh:
Corporate ownership
At Star Trek 's creation, Norway Productions, Roddenberry's production company, shared ownership with Desilu Productions and, after Gulf+Western acquired Desilu in 1967, with Paramount Pictures, the conglomerate's film studio. Paramount did not want to own the unsuccessful show; net profit was to be shared between Norway, Desilu/Paramount, Shatner, and NBC but Star Trek lost money, and the studio did not expect to syndicate it. In 1970 Paramount offered to sell all rights to Star Trek to Roddenberry, but he could not afford the $150,000 ($911,000 today) price.[15]
In 1989, Gulf+Western renamed itself as Paramount Communications, and in 1994 merged with Viacom.[15] In 2005, Viacom divided into CBS Corporation, whose CBS Television Studios subsidiary retained the Star Trek brand, and Viacom, whose Paramount Pictures subsidiary retained the Star Trek film library and rights to make additional films, along with video distribution rights to the TV series on behalf of CBS.[97][15]
(So sayeth wikipedia)
It still seems like a first, in my recollection, for CBS to play the heavy, so your story surprised me. Seems like over the years they've left that to Paramount; it's always been Paramount you hear about squashing copyright infringers like bugs. Will wonders never cease.